Rogue State? Which State?
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Which state is the world’s leading producer and marketer of weapons of mass destruction (WMD)? but is prepared to go to war against any state who possesses or is thought to possess some (provided it has only limited capacity to hit back)? Since 1992, this state has exported more than US$142 billion dollars worth of weaponry (including WMD) and dominates the arms trade, supplying half of all exports in 2001.

Which state has single-handedly brought negotiations on the Biological Weapons Convention to a halt, despite owning the world’s largest stockpile of such weapons and being a strident opponent of other countries possessing them? This country refused to reconsider the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and boycotted the review conference in New York; walked away from the Convention on the Prohibition of Landmines; and undermined the UN conference on small arms.

Which country unilaterally set aside the 1972 Anti-ballistic Missile treaty, due to its desire to develop a national missile defence (NMD) system? This, the first abrogation of an arms control treaty since the end of World War II, has also (fatally) undermined the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START II), on which the reduction in the nuclear stockpiles of the US and Russia depended. Australia and Japan are the only OECD countries that have not opposed NMD.

Which country refused to join the International Criminal Court, probably because it is one of the greatest war criminals in history? The fire bombing of Dresden and other German cities during World War 2, My Lai and the bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong in the American War on Vietnam, the use of cluster bombs in the American War on Afghanistan, the use of depleted uranium in shell cases in the American war on Iraq. As Daniel Ellsberg has shown, the Americans used false information and propaganda (relating to the so-called Gulf of Tonkin incident) to justify their most illegal and immoral acts against the northern Vietnamese.

Which is the only country to have used nuclear weapons which many consider to have been one of the greatest of all crimes against humanity? Its 2000 land-based inter-continental ballistic missile warheads are sufficient by themselves to eliminate human civilisation. These can all be launched in about 40 minutes. Much larger numbers of warheads (perhaps 30,000) are in strategic nuclear submarines, aircraft and mobile launchers.

Which country has changed or attempted to change the majority of regimes in an entire continent - South America? At present it is fomenting anarchy and economic devastation in Venezuela, after failing in its attempt to engineer a coup in April 2002. And all this purely because the regime is left-leaning, sells oil to Cuba and is seen as not favourable to American oil and business interests. This country is prepared to go to war (even on two fronts) to achieve regime change and secure its oil supplies.

Which country preaches free trade, but through its policies and particularly its subsidies to agricultural production does immense harm to farmers in third world countries (in concert with the European Union and Japan). These three spend 10 times more supporting their agricultural industries, (which in each case contribute 2 percent or less to GDP), than they spend on providing assistance to the countries whose agricultural industries they are helping to destroy.

Which country spends a niggardly 0.11 percent of its GDP providing aid to developing countries. About $3 billion annually provides budget support to Israel, a country with GDP of $19,000 per capita (purchasing power parity). This amount is greater than the total of its assistance to Africa (excluding Egypt), South America and the Caribbean. The military and moral support provided to Israel merely prolongs what has become the world’s most dangerous conflict.

Which country is $1.3 billion in arrears on its payments to the UN (as at September 2002), but still seeks undue influence on UN policies. For example it forces the UN Drug Control Program to take a prohibitionist stance on hard drugs, rather than seeking more humane and health-related approaches. While this state ostensibly supports the WTO, it vetoes any proposal that it considers to be against the interest of its manufacturing sector, as in December 2002 when it refused to allow developing countries to produce their own low cost anti-AIDS drugs.

Which state is the worlds leading producer of greenhouse gases and consumer of oil, but refuses to sign or ratify the Kyoto protocol? It seems unable to contemplate any action that curbs its gross level of consumption.

Which country is convinced that God is on its side and will approve even of its more outrageous actions, undertaken in the firm belief that only its vision of the world and its theology is ‘correct’? This country enforces sanctions against its perceived enemies, and has directly caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands and the impoverishment of millions? Its foreign policy is largely dictated by its powerful lobbies: oil, industry, agriculture, Cuban, Jewish.

Which country has free speech enshrined in its constitution, but where the powerful print and broadcast media almost always toe the official political line, eg, in relation to its wars on terror and Iraq?

Which country? - the world’s only true rogue state, the mighty US of A.

Can anyone or anything stop this massive and unparalleled abuse of power? Will it take another world war to slow the seemingly unstoppable march of the US towards world domination and control? What will be the aftermath?

The only faint ray of hope on the horizon is that the American people are beginning to become aware of what is being done in their name. While the American media are unlikely to assist in putting the record straight, the power of the internet is such that an increasing proportion of American citizens will become aware of how potentially disastrous American foreign and domestic policies are. The hope is that more and more Americans will become politically active, and in the end will persuade the government to adopt a more globally responsible approach.

January 2003


With due acknowledgement (for the title) to William Blum, author of “Rogue State: A Guide to the World’s Only Superpower” - to read some chapters or buy this well-researched book, visit http://members.aol.com/superogue/homepage.htm

PS. One reviewer commented that this piece is too negative. However, to put it in a more positive light, if America reverses most of the policies referred to in the article, the world should in the end become a better and hopefully safer place.

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** The opinions expressed in this message are those of the author